WILMINGTON, Mass. — Max Talbot, who played his final game as a Pittsburgh Penguin in 2011, gave an honest assessment of his former team Tuesday at Boston Bruins practice.
“I think it happens in most teams at some point,” the veteran forward said, “and it’s happening now for them.”
In Pittsburgh’s case, “it” has been a simple failure to put pucks in the net.
Despite already boasting two of the NHL’s top scoring threats in Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and adding a third (former Bruin and Toronto Maple Leaf Phil Kessel) this past summer, the Penguins are averaging fewer goals per game than all but three teams this season.
Crosby, Malkin and Kessel each have finished in the top six in the league in points within the last five years. Malkin, Pittsburgh’s current leader in most offensive categories, is highest on that list so far this season. He’s tied for 22nd with 27 points, 19 behind league leader Patrick Kane.
Crosby, meanwhile, is tied for 82nd with 19 points. Kessel has 18, tying him for 93rd.
“You always wonder with that much skill in the lineup, how have you not been dominant offensively?” Talbot said, posing the same question many have asked of the Penguins this season. “But sometimes it takes time. We’re still in the first third of the season. Guys like Kessel, who’d been playing so long in Toronto, come in, and it takes time to adjust. We’ll see, because their record is not that bad.”
Talbot’s last point is important. Even after losing six of their last eight games and dropping a 4-1 decision to the Washington Capitals on Monday in new head coach Mike Sullivan’s debut, the Penguins sit just one point out of the playoff picture in the Eastern Conference and three points behind the Bruins, who would nab the East’s first wild-card spot if the season ended Tuesday.
Losing longtime goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to a concussion was a huge blow — he’s expected to miss at least one to two weeks, and backup Jeff Zatkoff has started just four games all season — but Boston, which hosts Pittsburgh on Wednesday to kick off a home-and-home, knows that such a talented forward corps can only be kept silent for so long.
“You look at their (roster), and it can happen any day,” Bruins center Patrice Bergeron said. “So obviously, you have to be aware that they have that lethal offense. Maybe they didn’t get the puck luck so far, but they definitely have the players to have that. It’s going to be a big challenge for us.”
“There is potential there,” head coach Claude Julien added. “You hope that potential doesn’t start coming through against us, but there’s potential there (for them) to be a very dangerous team.”
Thumbnail photo via Kelvin Kuo/USA TODAY Sports Images
